We bought this for our 8 year old daughter over a year ago. It is well made, with a rosewood fretboard, and a hardtail bridge. The instrument was the perfect size for her. It has a good strong tone and consistent notes from low to high strings. The saddle is solid and the strings stay in tune well. I did a lot of research into this and after a year of playing it, am still convinced that this is the best instrument for a child, or anyone with smaller hands, to learn on.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I have had my red Mini for about 6 years now. And I still am in awe over how fantastic it is for a small-scale Fender. In fact, I get a richer tone out of it than I do with my standard size Ibanez, which is just collecting dust. I don't think the Squier Mini is just for kids or students at all. I am 38 and have been playing guitar for 22 years. It is ideal for anyone with small hands, or someone who just finds the neck and action of large guitars too hard or uncomfortable to manage. I would suggest you compare this to a standard guitar in person. But for the price, this guitar can't be beat.
Best Deals for Squier by Fender MINI Strat Electric Guitar, Torino Red
Wonderful starter guitar. I recently sat down with one, played for most of twelve hours, and felt no pain at all. The action is extremely low, but there's no fret buzzing. If I ever want one to travel with, I'd buy this mini without hesitation.
Honest reviews on Squier by Fender MINI Strat Electric Guitar, Torino Red
JULY, 2013 UPDATE:
Slowly, the mini has become my preferred, go-to electric. Why (given I have far more valuable instruments at my disposal)? For the same reason John Lennon once owned a 3/4-sized guitar, I suppose. Obscure chords are easier on the hands because fingers have to span less distance. The slight tonal inaccuracy of the 3/4 scale is more than offset by increased finger-placement accuracy. Try it and I think you'll like it (big grin)! And...to really do the job right, why not bolt on your choice of primo pickups (e.g. a set of vintage Fender noiseless, or a Hot Rails bridge and Quarter Pounder middle and neck) . I'll say it again: the Squier mini-strat is one of the world's most astonishing and under-reported musical bargains! Click "Add to Cart" now (Laughter of the Immortals).
ORIGINAL POSTING:
My first Mini, purchased over a decade ago, was a bad investment. The four neck bolts continually came loose, no amount of tweaking could get the intonation right, the pick-up pole pieces didn't align with the strings, and the finish was uneven. It cost $99 and I figured I got less than what I paid for. It was clearly a toy and I sold it for $25 without regret.
Three or four years ago I extensively played a "Hello Kitty" Mini owned by a friend. It cost her $149 and, after I tweaked the intonation and the string height a bit, it was a playable instrument. I figured she pretty much got what she paid for. A decent little 3/4-sized traveler.
Recently, after reading that Fender had upped the build quality of their oriental Squier guitars, I again purchased a Mini. I couldn't be more pleased. Right out of the box, everything about the instrument was spot-on. The construction was rock solid, the neck was straight, the strings were correctly positioned, the intonation was exact, and the finish was flawless. It was, in two words, masterfully made. I figure I got at least $249 worth of guitar for $99. How cool is that?
The sound of the current Mini is "classic Fender single-coil"...shimmering with bell-like overtones. The pickups are functional, if a bit thin sounding compared to the Seymour Duncans I have on my full-size Strat. The six-in-line enclosed tuners hold the light gauge strings without slipping. The neck is perfectly finished and fast. Because it's a 3/4-sized guitar, the string spacing might be too tight for adult players with large fingers. But for everyone else, including fortunate children, the current Mini is a sweet ride. And at its present "give away" street value, this has to be one of the most fantastic bargains in the musical kingdom! Bravo Fender!
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Squier by Fender MINI Strat Electric Guitar, Torino Red
Please be kind with my playing skills ;-) The video and audio was recorded with an old Canon Ixus 30, it' sole purpose is just to give you all an idea of the sound to expect from this instrument.
My daughter wanted an electric guitar for Christmas. Her main criteria: PINK!! and nothing else...
So to sum up the wish list:
* E-guitar for 6 year old
* PINK!!!
* light weight
* easy to play
* reasonable quality
* and did I mention it has to be PINK!!! ;-)
After some googling and viewing reviews it all came down to just one model available fulfilling the above criteria.
FENDER SQUIER Strat MINI pink.
To important specs that are not available on the Squier/Fender page:
* the width on the 20. fret is about 56 mm
* the weight is 2.16 kg
So not only the scale but also the fretboard in the overall geometry is shrunk compared to a regular size, which is an important difference to some of the competitor models. This makes it particularly suitable as a child guitar.
Pros:
* the settings (frets, string height, intonation) after unboxing are OK and you could start play right away (see cons)
* fretted chords sound OK and are easy to fret (I've read on several placed that fretted chords sound out of tune)
* after all the sounds you can get are OK for me
* you can tweak the factory settings with the supplied allen keys
* the guitar keeps in tune (with new strings);
Cons:
* the strings that it came with are simply unusable, I have replaced it with 10 gauge D'addario and now it's fine
* the tuners are crap; very very hard to turn at all; lubricant couldn't fix it
* the jack hardware fell of after attaching the instrument cable; both screws stripped out of the "wood" ; I've fixed it with two pieces of tooth pick (and a screwdriver of course)
* all the hardware: except for the fretboard is not good quality (especially the tuners)
the US price is 99 US $, in Europe starting at 145 (roughly double price) → this is unacceptable
Wrap up:
The guitar is easy to play, light weight and has a descent look. Despite all the shortfalls and the toy quality the guitar can ROCK after at least replacing the strings. I've bought it together with a Roland Micro Cube white, so with this my daughter can start out to make decent music whatever style she likes (clean, blues, rock and metal).
Nevertheless I'm disappointed by Fender/Squier producing a toy quality guitar. I would have gladly spent some more bucks for a higher quality.
But at the end of the day I was down to one guitar to choose from so I wish there would be more competition in this segment.
